One of my expat friends recently moved back to the U.S. to an area she has never lived in before.
When we spoke recently she shared how hard it is to develop friendships with people in the area.
When she is out walking and greets her neighbors, they look at her like she is from another planet.
When she meets people at her children’s schools and they learn that she was recently living overseas the conversation ends quickly.
Last week’s post: Together You Stand, Divided You Fall is the first part of this “mini series.” If you missed it, click here.
When I was a teenager I watched daytime soap operas. In each of them there was always a manipulative character that consistently pressed invisible buttons, somehow always getting what they wanted.
I remember wondering if anyone could actually be that conniving.
This weekend a news article and a video that covered different stories, were shared on social media.
Both were shared to stir hate and both effectively stirred up some of their intended audience.
A few years ago I sat down and made a list of the most important lessons I’d learned in leadership and in life – so far.
Recently I found myself wondering about others numero uno leadership lessons, so I posed this question on Social Media.
These were some of the answers I received:
Have you ever had someone make assumptions about you?
I despise boxes…. And typecasting…. And limits… And then I realized I was holding some assumptions that were putting others in boxes. Ugh!
…A couple of years ago, I volunteered to help out at a Career Fair. Early in the day, several vans arrived from Goodwill’s Training Program.
As the room filled with people several things blew my boxes of assumptions apart:
One of the parts of expat life that I looked forward to the most is living on a compound with people from all over the world. …People of diverse races and religions and values and personal histories living next to each other as neighbors…
Last week I shared a post with my friends – including some of my expat neighbors, about the people from Iran that were arrested after they recorded their own “Happy” YouTube Video.
I shared it because I’ve been really caught up in the news in the past few weeks:
I shared it because the longer I live as an expat in a land that operates in many of the same ways as Iran, the more I sense a silent pressure building between our little trips outside of this country.
